• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Don’t worry, Mom,” Ron said. “He is going to be all right. He is strong. He is going to pull through.”

The first lady and her son were allowed to visit Reagan after he had been awake for about twenty-five minutes. Doctors escorted them into the recovery room and then stepped back as they slipped between the portable screens that cloaked Reagan’s bed.

Mrs. Reagan clasped her husband’s arm. “I love you,” she said. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Ron was shocked by his father’s appearance: his face was stone gray and he was struggling for breath. Reagan requested a pencil and paper; a nurse handed him a blank hospital record, a clipboard, and a pen.

“I can’t breathe … at all.”

“He can’t breathe!” Mrs. Reagan shouted as the president tried to sit up.

“He has to get used to it,” a doctor replied. “The respirator is breathing for him. It’s all right.”

Ron tried to reassure his father. “Dad, it’s okay,” he said. “You’re going to be fine. It’s just like scuba diving. You have to let the machine breathe for you.”

Ron had no idea why that analogy popped into his head; he knew his father had never been scuba diving. “Just relax,” he added.

As he tried to soothe his father, Ron saw the fear and confusion in his eyes. At that moment, he understood: his father had almost died.

* * *

AT ABOUT 6:20, Richard Allen received word that the vice president would be landing at Andrews Air Force Base within minutes. While they waited for Bush in the Situation Room, Allen and the others were keeping abreast of the recent movements of Soviet military forces. Allen was particularly concerned about a new intelligence assessment from the CIA delivered to him just minutes earlier, stating that “photography of Soviet forces near Poland provides the initial indications of troop mobilizations.” But the photos mentioned in the assessment were a day old, and now that the Polish strike had been averted, Allen was less worried about the possibility that the Russians would take advantage of a perceived power vacuum in Washington to move aggressively on their western neighbor. Even so, he made sure that the assessment would be passed to Bush when he arrived at the White House.

At seven p.m., the vice president finally strode into the Situation Room. Even before taking a seat at the head of the conference table, Bush asked, “What’s the latest?”

Baker told him the doctors would hold a press conference in ten minutes to inform the country about Reagan’s condition.

Allen then raised the issue they’d been debating earlier. “There are questions of shift of authority that is required,” he said, mentioning the dairy bill that had to be signed the next day.

“My view on that is we ought to wait,” Bush said calmly. “These reports are so encouraging.… The best thing would be to wait to see, tomorrow, how the president feels.”

Weinberger briefed the vice president about his decision to increase the readiness of bomber crews in the hours after the assassination attempt and told Bush that military intelligence had received no indications of a pending attack. The secretary of defense began to describe the location of the Russian submarines when Baker interrupted him.

“Excuse me? Would it be appropriate to ask about clearances?” Baker said, clearly worried that classified information might be passed inadvertently to those not approved to receive it. “It might be appropriate to make sure.”

“Let’s get it straightened out,” Bush said.

“I think we need to make sure we don’t break the law right here in the Situation Room,” Baker said.

Before Weinberger continued, a number of officials without the proper security clearances streamed out of the room.

* * *

THE FBI AGENTS leading the investigation of John Hinckley were still struggling to get a better understanding of their suspect. By now, they knew that several months ago Hinckley had been arrested at the Nashville airport with three handguns on the same day that Jimmy Carter was visiting the city. They also knew that Hinckley had arrived in Washington after a